Baseball

A few weeks ago on Strike Zone, Chris Coleman spoke with Australia’s former major league pitcher Travis Blackley who was waiting for a call up to the Japanese majors. Travis is on the show this week to reflect on his ups and downs since then. Also this week, with the MLB Australian Academy Program about to start up, putting several dozen of Australia’s best young baseballers under the spotlight, national head coach Jon Deeble gives Chris and Warwick Pethybridge the lowdown on the new structure for the program in 2014.

Junior baseball leads off this week's 99th edition of Strike Zone, with 20 teams from across Australia at the Gold Coast competing in the Nationals for the chance to compete at the Little League World Series in the USA later this year. Chris also chats with Nicholas Henning, the author of several baseball books, about his latest work "Aussies in the Majors".

Baseball fans across Australia have been waiting to find out where and when their teams will play in this summer’s Australian Baseball league season, and the release of the schedule is imminent. Chris Coleman talks with ABL GM Ben Foster about the plans for season 2014-15 on this week's Strike Zone. And next month Australia will debut at the Under 15 World Championships in Mexico. Sydney’s Jason Pospishil will be in charge of the team, and he has a big-name pitching coach – find out who on the show.

Melbourne’s Travis Blackley is one of just 31 Australians to play Major League Baseball, but after turning out for Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, Houston and Texas, this year he's gone west - a long way west. He's crossed the Pacific to play in Japan. He talks to Chris Coleman on this week’s Strike Zone.

There is more on Strike Zone about the future of elite baseball in Sydney, as Chris Coleman is joined by Tim Harradine from Baseball NSW. We're off to the US again this week, with ESPN's Dan Szymborski, and find out who the first inductee to 'The Hall of Woz' is.

Strike Zone is back after the Easter break and this week, host Chris Coleman meets a Baseball Australia Hall of Fame inductee, Kaye Greenham, one of three people inducted to the hall at the recent baseball Australia Diamond Awards. Chris also chats with ABL chief executive Peter Wermuth to find out what came out of the Baseball Australia conference on the Gold Coast. Women's Baseball remains on the agenda with the National Championships on this week, and Woz starts his countdown to Strike Zone 100.

The first major change for the Australian Baseball League 2014-15 season is unfolding right now, with the Melbourne Aces announcing that Phil Dale will not be the manager at Altona next season. Chris Coleman speaks to Phil and Aces GM Windsor Knox on this week’s show. He also catches up with Simone Wearne, Manager of Team Australia (The Emeralds) to see how she’s feeling now the pools for the 2014 Women’s Baseball World Cup have been released.

As Major League Baseball gets up to speed, Strike Zone takes a final look back at the MLB experience at the SCG on this week’s show, when Chris Coleman is joined by Jason Moore, the man who brought the games down under. Chris also talks to Rich Thompson, a man whose MLB career is seemingly in limbo following an injury last season, and Warwick Pethybridge is back with his regular look at some of the stuff you might have missed in the early stages of 2014 .

Now that Major League baseball has been to town, Chris Coleman and Warwick Pethybridge take a look back at the first visit to Australia by The Show, and discuss what was good about it, and what will hopefully be done better next time MLB comes Down Under. If you missed Chris's interview with Vin Scully, the LA Dodgers legendary play-by-play announcer, it's in this week's Strike Zone, and which Sydney baseballer has just signed with one of the MLB clubs that was in Australia? Chris Coleman speaks to him as well.

Yasiel Puig (C) of the Dodgers celebrates with A. J. Ellis (L) and Chone Figgins (R) after hitting a two run home run in the seventh inning during the match between Team Australia and the LA Dodgers at Sydney Cricket Ground on March 20, 2014 in Sydney, Australia.